Sky Blue Stirring

It was two nights before the Redwing Pirates’ battle with the Western Navies.

Marina's chest burned with an incessant flame of rage—and regret, all at once. She was used to being a pawn made to dance for the Federacy's schemes, but never had she tasted the poison of their lies herself.

“What on Eas possessed you to make this decision,” Marina said to Lias’ projection within the bubble from the pond. “I thought you wanted them alive?”

Lias sighed, but squeezed in a single chuckle. “I want the elf alive—not the man nor his machine. The Captain of the Redwing, she's one to keep her treasures safe. So I have a plan to make sure the princess and the artificer are separated first,” he said, then smiled through the water's distortion. “Then we eliminate the machine's pilot.”

Marina grumbled. “He is an asset.”

“He is a liability.”

“And what makes you say that?”

“Allow me to correct myself. He is not a liability; he is a threat.” Lias’ tone deepened. “I have heard reports of what happened to Isle G9 on the border of the Eastern Front. Then there is your report. That man is fully capable of taking on the Sky Legion with only him, his weapon, and a single woman. Can you imagine the kind of power he holds?”

“I have no idea what happened in G9, but I have seen first hand what he can do. The plan was to take him into our fold, and—”

“That man has the power to topple us, left unchecked,” he interrupted. “A man with that kind of power can and will turn against their masters when he deems them too bothersome.”

Marina breathed deep. She wanted to scream, but held her indignation.

“The plan was for you to take the princess for whatever plan you had for the halfborn, and for me to form a Sky Link with the pilot,” she said. “That way, he won't turn on us.”

“Marina.” His footsteps echoed from beyond the bubble palantir as he paced on a wooden floor. “In what world would a powerful male Sapia listen to a commoner like you?”

“What…?”

“Just because your mother reached far above her station, it doesn't mean your words carried weight like hers does. By the Divine, she should not have that station in the first place! I swear, weak people let power get in their heads so easy so fast.”

How dare you talk about my mother like that? Marina wanted to cut the connection there. She so wanted to crush his skull with her bare hands. Everything he said about Haruki and her very own mother, simply projections on his part.

Lias was everything her own father was not. If her father were still alive, this man wouldn't have taken the Western Navies so casually.

“Is that it? Are we done here?” Marina clenched a fist behind her. “Do you have anything else you want to say?”

“Hmm.” Lias pondered, but Marina knew every single pause he made in conversation was facetitious. “Now that you're done there, when are you planning to head home? There's no need to spend any more time with these backward elves. Definitely no place for a Sapia.”

“Oh, don't worry, Commander,” she said flatly. She didn't belong in Ka-Ilyah, but the Federacy's nobility didn't fare any better in making her feel like she belonged. “I will come home soon enough. When?—It will be a surprise.”

“That's good. The sooner you can rejoin your mother far from the frontlines, the better.”

Even then, he had something backhanded to say.

Letting go of her clenched fist, she swatted the bubble down back to the pond and stomped back to the castle.

Something had to be done.

If not for the skies and the Federacy's safety—

—But for her pride.

And for the only other Sapia that didn't see her as commoner garbage.

The first man who rejected her.

####

Marina entered the castle keep's second library. The library was long forgotten, becoming a storage for books now unread and unwanted by the kingdom populace. The first library became a place for last wills and epitaphs of elves slain by the Sky Legion; obsessed with longevity, they wrote tomes dedicated to what they wanted to do should they live beyond the next Sky Legion attack. Every single thing they wanted to do in their long lives, written in parchment.

Many did not live to see today.

Wills are being carried out to this day by descendants and friends of the deceased.

Elves, finally haunted by mortality—their life beyond the grave robbed others of their agency.

Marina began to care for these people of stolen longevity. Almost. But something else had to be done.

Feeling around the twelfth bookshelf in the furthest corner of the library, her hands drifted over a red-spined book with the title “Tomes of the Second Millenia”. The contents didn't interest her so much as its existence.

When she pulled the book, the shelf itself swung on a hinge like a door, revealing a hollow passage leading downwards. The passage itself didn't seem constructed, but rather carved out of the bedrock by high pressure water.

She tossed two magelight orbs inside, illuminating the mangled steps leading down. But as she was about to head down…

“Minister Marina.”

She turned around.

Fianna was standing several paces behind. Her expression didn't indicate any apprehension, but rather the opposite. Fianna's mournful but resolute smile made her look more… understanding of Marina—no matter what she was about to do.

“So you knew,” Marina said.

“Of the secret passage, or that you're not an elf?” Fianna took two steps forward, and Marina stepped back once. “I knew both. I was complicit in the Princess' escape, after all.”

Marina's eyes narrowed. “So you're here to arrest me?”

“No…” Fianna looked away and down. “You're going to where the Princess is, right? Take me with you.”

“What?” Marina's head spun for a moment. “What are you playing at? And what makes you say I'm going where you say I am?”

“I didn’t. But your reaction gave it away.”

“Ah.” Marina’s lips shut tight.

“Minister Marina, I’ve lived through the lives of many members of the Ka-Ilyan court. Some fell from the Sky Legion, and some just simply saw the end of longevity.” Fianna went beside Marina, and her expression darkened, the shadow of the night almost giving her this insidious demeanor. Has she been like this all along? Marina had thought Fianna was such a sweet, sweet girl. But she—she knew things. She was old. “All those years in the Ka-Ilyan court—I have seen what half-lies and half-truths look like, minister. I ask that you not trifle with me.”

Marina sighed. Thoroughly defeated by a supposed innocent, sweet girl.

“I am,” she admitted. Her tone became evasive, and she said, “But I cannot take you with me. Surely the castle could use more hands with rebuilding and preparing for the next Sky Legion attack. And with the princess gone—”

“If the king finds out now, in the midst of his grief, he will execute you—for treason.”

Marina swallowed a lump in her throat. Fianna had everything covered. How could she have been so foolish to think a Ka-Ilyan servant at least five times her age couldn’t outmaneuver her?

That moment, she realized perhaps not all elves think in “slow motion”.

“Come.” Marina invited Fianna down the sunken path, and they followed it all the way to its end.

The steps—or what resembled them—ended at a protruding piece of land sitting in the middle of an underwater river. At the edge of the land was an airship a third of the size of a galleon, suspended over the water by giant chains hanging from the cave’s ceiling.

Small deposits of amber-like crystals—Titanseye—protruded in little amounts from the walls of the cave.

Fianna’s eyes rounded. “W-What is this place?” At last, something that caught her off-guard.

“This is how I came in.” Marina walked up to the airship and pulled a string hanging from its bottomside. A loading ramp slammed onto the hardened mud of the island.

“Your minister’s death wasn’t an accident,” Marina continued. “A cohort of mine entered through her, carving a tunnel under your library. From there, my cohort assassinated a minister for me to take their place, if you remember the time I posed as an elf from a foreign land.”

“I remember,” Fianna said. “That explains the identity of the second corpse. The Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time took your assistant with her.”

Marina nodded. “Once I was done here, I was planning to leave your kingdom without a Foreign Minister—”

A knife rushed at Marina. She conjured a blade of crystalized water and parried it. She locked Fianna in a crossed-arm wrangle.

“You should have left earlier,” Fianna said menacingly, her stare piercing into Marina. “Why didn’t you?”

Marina had anticipated something like this—but Fianna was right. Why didn’t I leave?

“Because I couldn’t leave without repaying the kindness of your people!” Was that the reason though? Maybe so. But perhaps it was more like—

—Home back home, didn’t feel like home.

Not any different from here.

Both of them jumped back. Fianna held her dagger backhanded and paced, trying to circle Marina. She paced to match.

“And what of these crystals?” Fianna asked. “These are Titanseye. These aren’t native to Ka-Ilyah. You brought a seed here, didn’t you?”

“Yes.” Marina readied herself for an attack, dagger forward and stance low. Then, when no attack came, she spoke again. “I was instructed to do so when we came.”

“You know Titanseye attracts the Sky Legion. You were putting us to death.”

“I know that. But they would have…” Executed her? Who, the Federacy? Lias del Romero? Her own mother? Who was she actually following? Who was she afraid of?

Marina bit her lip. “You were already under attack even before I came along.”

“And your Titanseye deposit intensified the attack. We’ve been reduced to a single castle because of you.”

Fianna lunged forward, slashing once to feint. Marina parried but left herself open. Her opponent thrust towards her chest. When the knife stabbed through Marina’s rib, she collapsed into a puddle of water.

Marina then re-emerged from the shore of the river in a high jump and dove knife-first.

She aimed to disarm, but Fianna forced a clash, locking their knives into another pushing match.

“Fianna, stop! You want to see the princess, don’t you?”

“I do, but I must eliminate any and all threats to the kingdom if I’m able.” Her brows knitted in quiet fury.

Marina shoved Fianna away, and they both stumbled backwards.

“I know where she is.” Roughly. But Lias’ stink can be smelled kilomelyes away. “And only I know how to fly that balloon. Kill me now, and you’ll be wracking your head for the next few years trying to work that thing. The Princess might be dead and gone by then.”

Fianna locked stares with her, unconvinced.

“And,” Marina retorted to her silence. “I’m not a threat anymore. I was a threat, but I’ve already lived past the usefulness of my masters. I’m just… a woman now. A woman who knows where Her Royal Highness is.”

“How do I know you won’t double cross me while we’re there?”

Marina shrugged. “Clearly I can’t beat you in a fight without my water. Once we’re in the sky, how could I ever hope to compete?” Her options were limited up in the air, and pulling water from clouds was still way above her talents for now.

Tension thickened between her and Fianna. The elf then considered, breaking eye contact for a moment. Then, she sheathed her blade under her skirt.

“Minister Marina—or rather, Marina.”

“Yes?” Marina smiled and evaporated her own dagger.

“Take me to Her Royal Highness,” Fianna said, her demeanor taking a sharp turn back to its usual damsel-y self. Then in a soft yet threatening voice, she said:

“Make this trip your final service to the crown.”